Kurashi - News From Japan

Update: European Union lawmakers and governments struck a deal on Thursday over REACH, the wide-ranging draft law on toxic chemicals, putting it on track to enter force in the first part of 2007. Story http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39258/story.htm" target="_blank">here . Reuters has details about the political wrangling about REACH, the proposal for a new chemicals legislation in the EU. I spent a large part of my lecture about environmental hormons in Seoul last week discussing the merits of REACH. As Chosun Ilbo notes, most Korean exports to the EU contain chemicals, and almost every export item will be affected by REACH. Korean Exporters Brace for Environmental Rules Abroad . An attempt was initiated in 1998 by Japan to deal with reprotoxic chemicals. It is known as the Strategic Programs on Environmental Endocrine Disrupters (SPEED) program, but its original scope was significantly reduced faced with the chemical industry's criticism. Her...

Tonight, NHK was showing a beautiful documentary with anthropologist Nakazawa Shinichi , who describes early Buddhism in Nara. Nakazawa is an expert on Tibet and has a lot to say about the influences from China and Korea. You can see his very private talk about Japanese religions here . Shinto? Buddhist? What is "before religion and after religion"? You decide. Mari, my favourite blog, talks about traditional Buddhist vegetarian food called Shojin Ryori .

The FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission is holding its Task Force meeting in Makuhari, Chiba this week. On the agenda is foods from genetically modified animals. No such foods are approved yet, but there is research on GMO salmon that could be in supermarkets unless consumers step up the protests. A "safety standard" approved by Codex could pave the way for more GMOs, irregardless of ethical concerns or the concerns of people caring about animal welfare. Under WTO, an agreement by Codex makes it difficult for national governments to ban GMOs. Others hope that a strong Codex standard can help countries in the developing world, to oppose imports from the U.S. and Canada, where most GMOs are cultivated. Good to see that there was a pretty big demonstration yesterday outside the meeting venue in Makuhari, where governments discuss this issue. Many Co-op members, Consumers Union of Japan, farmers' groups and Korean activists participated in the rain. I especially want to men...

Kyodo reports that member states of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna reached a formal accord Sunday to cut the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean bluefin tuna quota for 2007. Overfishing is a huge problem and cutting the quota from the current 32,000 tons to 29,500 tons is not enough. In the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, fish farms have become increasingly common. Large quantities of tuna from such fish farms are exported to Japan and sold at sushi restaurants and supermarkets. Bluefin tuna and southern bluefin tuna are highly popular in Japan for use in sushi and sashimi. Fatty parts of their meat, known as "toro," are especially sought after and fetch high prices. Japan gets about half of its bluefin tuna from the Mediterranean, according to Japan's Fishery's Agency official, Hiroaki Hasegawa. He also said to NHK that it is inevitable that the agreement will lead to less bluefin imports into Japan but he cannot say h...

There will be a lot of activities this week about food safety. Consumers Union of Japan, Green Coop and the NO! GMO Campaign are among the groups that are spearheading the movement to stop genetic engineering in Japan. Many farmers are involved too, especially in Hokkaido , Iwate, Nagano, and Chiba prefectures, as GMO Free Zones are being established around Japan. The FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Task Force is meeting in Makuhari, Chiba, to discuss safety guidelines for GMO animals. Activists are angry that consumer concerns are not taken into account by government officials, although, no GMO animals have been approved for food (yet). Why doesn't the food industry understand that people do not want to eat GMOs?

Here is a photo from the conference at the Korea National Assembly yesterday. I participated in the symposium about mad cow disease and heard about how Korea has been forced to open its market to U.S. beef after pressure from the U.S. government. Dr. Mike Hansen from the U.S. Consumers Union had a lot to say about the situation at U.S. meat plants. Virtually no safety testing is going on and unsafe feed appears to be the norm. And just today, there is news that bone fragments were found in in a package of meat during quarantine inspections. Thus, the Korean government said Friday it will not allow the first batch of beef shipped from the United States to be sold in Korea... Actually the Korean beef protest issue is part of a bigger picture. The U.S. and South Korea are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the U.S. demanded that Seoul must allow U.S. beef before any further FTA negotiations could take place. Opposition parties and NGOs are furious at the Korean government. I don...

Tomorrow I go to Seoul, Korea to talk at a conference about Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, and what we can do to minimize exposure to them. In Japan EDCs are called "kankyou hormones" because they are man-made substances that trick the body's endocrine system, by acting like hormons. I like the name better since it is easier to remember than "Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals". Since Theo Colborn's book Our Stolen Future was translated, there has been a lot of debate about this topic in Japan, also connected to the dioxin and PCB problem. It will be interesting to hear about the situation in Korea.